Research

Brief History of the Performance of Rubberized Pavements in Washington State

A history of the use of recycled tire rubber in pavements by the Washington State Department of Transportation is provided. The last four projects built using rubber or polymer modified binders are reviewed and the performance is compared to conventional pavement built without rubber or polymer additives. The added cost of building open-graded friction courses with rubber or polymer modified binders is not justified by additional service life for these types of pavements. The added cost of these binders when used with conventional dense graded mixes may be justified if the pavement life predicted by the Washington State Pavement Management System is realized.